memory

memory

1. retention independent of conscious recollection

2. multi-store model

   • senses -> sensory memory -> (attention) -> short-term memory (-> rehearsal -> <- retrieval <-) long-term memory
     • the sensory memory / register temporarily stores information from our senses
       • capacity = large, but virtually impossible to measure
         • duration = limited (about half a second)
           • coding = according to the sense from which it originates
         • spirling's study
   • short-term memory
     • capacity = 7 +/- 2
       • duration = 18-30 seconds
         • coding = acoustic (by sound)
         • peterson and peterson study
       • miller's study
   • long-term memory
     • capacity = unlimited
       • duration = potentially life-long
         • coding = semantic (by meaning)
           • baddeley's study
         • bahrick's study
   • weaknesses
     • too linear
       • oversimplified
         • over reliant on the articulatory loop
           • not representative of real life
             • difficult to do research on it as it is an internal process
   • strengths
     • seminal
       • primacy and recency effect (remember more at the beginning, remember more at the end)

3. the working memory model

   • central executive
     • visuospatial sketchpad
       • long term memory
       • has inner scribe that deals with manipulation of mental images and visual cache that has a limited capacity for coding visual and spatial information
     • phonological loop
       • articulatory control system
         • phonological store
           • long term memory
           • holds the words you hear, like an inner ear
         • acts like an inner voice, rehearsing information
     • episodic buffer
       • long term memory
       • binds and integrates information from all of the components and passes the information to long-term memory (codes visual and acoustic information and has limited capacity)
     • controls attention and directs information to the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad
   • interference
     • proactive interference
       • forgetting occurs when older memories, already stored, disrupt the recall of newer memories
     • degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar
     • retroactive interference
       • forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories, already stored
   • encoding specificity principle
     • the reason we forget is due to insufficient cues
       • cue dependent forgetting states that information is still in the long term memory, but cannot be accessed
         • context-dependent cues
           • external cues present in the environment
           • godden and baddeley
         • state dependent cues
           • internal cues relating to how the individual was feeling or whether they were influence by alcohol, drugs such as anti-histamine
           • goodwin (alcohol) carter and cassidy (antihistamine)
   • eye witness testimony
     • an account given by people of an event they have witnessed
       • factors affecting eye witness testimony
         • leading questions
         • post-event discussion, where witnesses discuss what they saw after an event, potentially affecting the accuracy of their accounts
           • gabbert study
     • loftus and palmer
     • the cognitive interview
       • a questioning technique used by the police to enhance retrieval of information about a crime scene from the eyewitnesses and victim's memory. Geiselman et al (1985) developed the Cognitive Interview as an alternative to the Standard Interview.